The FBI is turning its attention to cybersecurity

Could shutting down our ability to buy stuff on eBay really cripple us?

Richard DesLauriers, special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Boston office, told a room full of business people at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Club last week that the agency has completely changed its mission since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“We needed to become proactive, with the responsibility of stopping terrorist attacks before they happen,” he said. “We need to know what we don’t know in critically important areas, and send resources to fill those intelligence gaps.”

Mr. DesLauriers, who said he spent the “best four years of his life” in Worcester while an undergraduate at Assumption College, said while the threat from foreign terrorists like Al Qaeda has waned, the threat from HVEs — homegrown violent extremists — has increased substantially.

He talked about one of those HVEs, Rezwan Ferdaus, the Ashland man who pleaded guilty last year to plotting to blow up landmarks in Washington, D.C., with bombs that would have been strapped to remote control planes.

Mr. DesLauriers said Worcester police played a significant role in the investigation, and that a detective from the WPD was assigned to work with the FBI on the case.

What really caught my attention, though, was Mr. DesLauriers’ discussion of cyberthreats, which he said “could equal or exceed the threat of foreign terrorists.”

Could shutting down our ability to buy stuff on eBay really cripple us? Could having somebody strip out my bank account be as bad as sending planes full of people against buildings full of people? Could it kill almost 3,000 people? I was skeptical.

It’s a different kind of threat, he explained. We have become so dependent on online banking that shutting down parts of our financial system, even for a short time, would be crippling. And essential systems like our power grid are vulnerable to cyberattacks as well.

How easy is it to disrupt the Web? So easy that a 15-year-old Canadian teenager with the moniker Mafia Boy could take down eBay, eTrade, CNN and some other websites from the safety of his bedroom, “just to see if he could do it.”

That said, Mr. DesLauriers told the Breakfast Club that there are five different kinds of cybercriminals. He listed them from least dangerous to most.

First (and least dangerous) are hackers and hacktivists like Mafia Boy. They mostly accomplish “Web defacements,” which means they can temporarily disrupt a website or take over parts of the site and post unauthorized content. Their motivations vary from “because I can” to “because I want to disrupt this organization I disagree with.” There’s generally no financial benefit to them for doing it. It’s illegal, but in the big scheme of things, not serious.

Then there are criminals who troll the Web looking for ways to steal people’s money and identities. Criminal organizations have been developed with the sole purpose of finding passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers and more, all with the goal of making money from fraud. They are only in it for the money, and they cost Americans millions of dollars every year.

A small but growing type of Web criminal targets defense contractors, with the goal of extracting government or military secrets, which are sold to the highest bidder. This is cyberespionage.

The Web is also a prime place to recruit terrorists. If foreign terrorists cannot establish a foothold in the states with sleeper agents, they try to convince people already here to share their hatred of America and love of violence. These foreign terrorists are looking to grow some real terrorists, HVEs (don’t you love our government’s endless creation of acronymns?), in our midst.

Lastly, there is evidence that other nation states — he declined to name any, but take your pick of countries the U.S. has invaded or threatened recently; the list is pretty long — could “use cyberwar to wage war against the U.S.”

Before 9-11, cybersecurity was all about defense, about building the biggest and best firewall to protect a website, a company or government entity from cyberattacks. Now, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are on the offensive, he said, seeking to “arrest the people who sit at the keyboards, committing these crimes.”

I don’t know about you, but if I had to pick my favorite kind of war, it would be cyberwar. Last time I checked, computers are a lot less deadly than bombs and guns. There is a reset button; there is an off button. You can function without the Web, really. Just ask anyone born before 1993.

That doesn’t mean the threat isn’t real — it just means it won’t kill you.